Written on June 22nd
Being back at project has been a mish mash of emotion, returning back from our travels and seeing some of the faces who also enjoyed their holidays has been great, but as India seems to go - and the laid back ness of the culture it is in some parts such as Ongole, school has gotten off to a very slow start. Timetabled school is yet to start properly as the children come in in drips and drabs. However come next week routine should be on its way again and we can get going with our new syllabus having been granted the new roles of General Knowledge (GK) teachers!
We have text books to follow, and pages for the classes to fill in, activities to do and prepare , books to mark, and I'm looking forward to the challenge! In the meantime we've been helping fill in names on textbooks, (a process that takes much longer than imagined due to class sizes!) and trying to fill teaching gaps wherever possible.
Aside from school taking a slow run to start, the weather however has taken a fast turn from the scorching hot heatwaves seen in Andhra Pradesh last month to the monsoon rains! It's definitely much cooler, greyer, and cosier listening to the rains from our room, having been in the heat for so long. Not only is India so diverse in its culture, religion and traditions, the weather too seems to make this country so full of unpredictable contrasts.
Having just returned from travelling we were keen to get straight back into catching up with what we'd missed. With campus' painted, trees planted, a new office for HM sir, little more was missed beside - a wedding!! (Our hosts, daughter.) Therefore keen to see a wedding reception of any sort, Kalyani and Maddam took us along to a Muslim wedding reception. The dining experience was a completely new scene of eating madness - more like speed feeding! The length of the tables spanned the whole hall, laid out with plastic (Merry Christmas!) cups and plates. With copious amounts of rice and sambar the guests all looked happy, full, and content (as were we!).
On the 18th of June we also celebrated Jades birthday. I'll never know what it feels like to have a birthday at project, but I can say I loved sharing the excitement with Jadey - especially with the abundance of cards and parcels that flooded in over the week. Kalyani organised a surprise lunch for us which we had 'picnic style' on our bed, along with a choccy cake, gulab jamon, vada, mysore pak and an array of goodies.
Talking of goodies, over the school summer holidays, my grandparents sent bunches of stickers and craft material, so it looks like some arty afternoons will be had in the coming weeks! :-)
